FreeCharge to use Aadhaar-based authentication for mobile wallets

Consumers can opt for their authentication by either walking into any branch of FreeCharge's wallet partner YES Bank or any of Yes Bank's 30,000 banking correspondent pointsVikas SN | ETtech | October 05, 2015, 17:36 IST

FreeCharge said that consumers who enrol for a wallet with Aadhaar authentication can increase their wallet balance to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 10,000. Under the existing RBI norms, consumers can only hold Rs 10,000 in a mobile wallet above which a full KYC, similar to what is needed for opening a bank account, is mandatory.

Consumers can opt for their authentication by either walking into any branch of FreeCharge's wallet partner YES Bank or any of Yes Bank's 30,000 banking correspondent points.

Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge and Chief Strategy Officer, Snapdeal said they will soon be launching an on-demand doorstep KYC service on pilot basis in metros and scale it up across the country by using Snapdeal’s delivery reach. The service will also be rolled out on FreeCharge's strategic partner and Payments bank licensee FINO in the future, the company said.

FreeCharge had launched its wallet service with YES Bank last month, enabling consumers to make payments for transactions on both Freecharge and Snapdeal. It also partnered offline large format retail chain Shoppers Stop to offer enable customers make payments across all Shoppers Stop stores in the country through the wallet.

It's worth noting that FreeCharge and Snapdeal parent Jasper Infotech has also received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India for a wallet license, enabling to launch a wallet on their own in the future.